What is a Progression?

A progression is series of steps that logically build on one another, increase in difficulty, and are focused specifically on that student.

Welcome and Introduction

Assess the athlete

Determine goals and plan experiences

Create experiences for learning

Guide Practice

Review and Preview

Boots should feel snug but not painful

Slide foot in, pull your heel back and down

Start with buckles on the upper cuff to ensure heel is all the way back and down

Tighten remaining buckles

With feet shoulder width apart, flex ankle pushing shins against the fronts of the boot. This is your basic skiing stance

If the boot feels comfortable now, you have the right size!

Fits snug but not too tight, ensuring hair is not covering their face

Buckle chin strap - adjust as needed

Have athlete move head around to ensure that the helmet stays in place

Every sport has an athletic stance.

Feet hip width apart. Joints flexed evenly (ankles, knees, hips). Hands up and looking ahead.

A stance that promotes balancing movements along their base of support (i.e. skis).

Bowties and Boot Arcs

These are great activities to do before your students put on their skis.

Bowties and boot arcs allow them to feel how their feet and legs can turn separate from their upper body. In skiing, we refer to the upper body as the pelvis and up.

These activities introduce them to the rotational control movements they will use for efficient skiing

Bowties - Turn heel and toes back and forth on the snow.

Focus on turning the foot, not the whole body.

Boot Arc- Kicking a soccer ball, big toe and heel stays on ground at all times

Upper body remains quiet, steering the lower body

Heel piece of binding is down

01

Snow off bottom of boot – one leg scrape off snow from toe pice of binding

02

Line up the heel, push down

03

Shark Fin. You have to be sure to push the shark fin down so that you can see the shark tooth

04

Check for safety (look up hill)

Option 1

Put skis parallel and across the hill so they are beneath you and you’re in a seated position

With weight on your hip start to stand up while walking your hands up in a circle towards the front of your skis

Option 2

Roll onto belly

Lift skis up behind you, set skis down so ski tips are pointed across the hill.

Do a push up, first onto your knees then onto your feet - walking your hands down

Sliding and Gliding

Figure 8 Scootering

Step in a circle, pivoting around the tip, tail, and center of both skis

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Wagon Wheel – feet are the hub, skis are the spokes. Do not cross tips and tails

Pivoting around the tip, tail, and center of both skis

Ski Tip Center– keeping tips together, spread tails apart making a wedge or snow plow with skis. Practice going left and right

Tails are center of hub- reverse wedge, stepping out then back together

Walk, shuffle, and slide

Side Stepping

Sidestep up a shallow slope

1

Slide down the hill. To make it easier for athlete to stop, use terrain that flattens into a ‘runout’ area or slifht counter-slope at the end

2

Experiment with variations: flexing and extending from the ankles, small hops on both feet, stepping from foot to foot.

3

Step heels out, keeping tips together.

Spreading the peanut butter, heel smooths out over the bread.

Emphasize the inward turning of the legs (with the skis slightly edged), this helps develop an awareness of braking with the skis to control speed. 

Adjusting the size of the wedge familiarizes athlete with the sliding action of the edged skis over the snow.

Focus on standing on outside ski - steering it.

1

Dribble and shoot a basketball.

2

Get some speed, and have them dribble on the outside foot, while ‘shooting’ in between.

3

Have them aligned on their outside foot, pressuring outside foot & steering their feet around the corner.

4

RamPing up speed can help, as well as slightly steeper terrain.

Thumper turn – make turn, picking up the tail of inside ski. Gently tap it on the ground. This helps to lighten the ski and steer it.

Focus on inside ski, making it lighter, tipping, focusing on ankle and knee.

The uphill ski should remain flat so they are able to guide it together. Rolling knee up the hill, steering the ski back to parallel so edge does not get caught.

You must have permission before progressing to chair lifts. Top of the hill requires tethering!

Fill out progress report!